— tain Cook’s third voyage, where it is observed, “ Mr. Ander- 
254 NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
subjects of inquiry, and it still is the same with each new 
land and even barren rock. So it was when we made the 
Cape. On descrying Table Mountain, I could have sate (and 
did sit) for hours, wondering whether this knoll was covered 
with Heaths or Rutacee ; if that rill produced the Wardia, or 
such a rock the Andrea ; where were Ludwigsberg and Wyn- 
berg, the Tree Ferns, and all those objects which the mind 
associated with our mutual pursuits and friends at home. 
No idea recurs so often, or is so delightfully pursued, as that. 
of telling my relations of all that I have seen: never do I 
view a new prospect but I think what pleasure it will give to ——— 
scan it o'er again, as it were, in their society ; mapping out —— 
the spots where my specimens have been gathered, painting 
the scenery to one, and spinning to another the yarns of 
incidents that have befallen during my excursions, while my 
untraveled friends will look upon me as *the monkey that 
has seen the world,” 
The botany of the Cape itself and of Table Mountain, which — 
was the utmost extent of the young officer’s rambles, is £00 
well known to render it necessary to dwell upon the subject 
here, and we are approaching a country, of scanty vegetation, — 
indeed, but replete with interest to the philosophical in- 5 
quirer, from its size, 200 leagues in circuit, its position, - 
(N. lat. 49° 20', E. long. 69° 30/) so widely severed from — 
other lands, and its most peculiar, though limited Flor» — 
namely, Kerguelen's Island, or Desolation Island. We are - 
not aware that any thing was previously known of its vegeta 
ble productions, save what is said respecting them iu Cap- 
son, my surgeon, who had studied Natural History, lost nO 
opportunity, during the short time we lay at Christmas 
Harbour, of searching the country in every direction. I m 
sert his observations in his own words :— Perhaps no place 
hitherto discovered in either hemisphere, under the same 
parallel of latitude, affords so scanty a field for the naturalist 
as this barren spot. The verdure appears, when at a little 
distance from the shore, asifit would promise some herbage, 
